


Illusion

by kitkatt0430



Series: Rip Hunter Appreciation 2020 [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Rip is there for the Dominators Crossover event, Rip's part of the simulation includes his wife and son, Virtual Reality, and is in the virtual simulation along with Sara and the others
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24985912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: Rip Hunter is playing with his family in a park and he isn't ready to admit it yet, but there's something wrong in the back of his head.And then Sara shows up.
Relationships: Miranda Coburn/Rip Hunter, Rip Hunter & Sara Lance
Series: Rip Hunter Appreciation 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808590
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20





	Illusion

**Author's Note:**

> For Rip Hunter Appreciation Day 1 - Friends and Family

Rip throws the tennis ball and the dog - still an overgrown puppy, really - bounds after it across the dog park. Jonas laughs and claps his hands in delight and Miranda ruffles his hair.

Everything is perfect.

(Everything is wrong.)

* * *

Jonas Hunter is twelve years old. Miranda Coburn-Hunter is pregnant with their second child. Rip is over the moon excited about this. He practically passed out when Miranda told him they were expecting again.

So he's not sure what could possibly be causing the lingering dread in his chest. Like something terrible is going to happen. Or has happened.

(He's screaming, begging, pleading, no, no, no.no.no...)

They're at a park on the weekend, playing with the dog they'd gotten Jonas to help him with the transition from only child to eldest child. It's a beautiful day. A perfect day.

And that's when Rip sees the blonde woman. She's familiar, somehow.

Rip's never met her before. She doesn't fit in his life with his wife and son. But he knows her.

She looks stricken as she stares at them. Heartbroken.

("I'd like you to take over as Captain," he tells her. The look of shock on the woman's face is priceless. "If our experiences with the Time Masters and Vandal Savage have taught me anything, it's that while I am capable of being an exemplary solo agent... in a team, I do not have the instincts of a leader. I think you do. My experience is at your disposal, Captain Lance."

"Oh, shit, you're serious.")

The woman - Captain Lance - approaches Rip slowly and he wants to beg her to leave.

_Let me have this, let me keep this, please let this be real, don't take them away from me again..._

By the time she's standing in front of him, he already knows what she's going to say.

"Rip, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This isn't real."

"They're my family. Sara, they're real." Rip doesn't know how he knows her name. (He had researched her meticulously before choosing her as part of his doomed crew. She'd been meant to die anyway, spiraling out of control until she self destructed after her sister's death and was murdered by the same man who killed Laurel Lance. He'd never expected her to find stability among the crew. Never expected she'd become a friend to him.) "Please, Sara..."

"I'm so sorry," she repeated, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I know they're your family, Rip. But we are too. And I can't leave my family behind in this place."

Something in Rip breaks. He clings to her shirt, buries his face against her neck. And he sobs as he remembers.

Losing his family. Gaining his family. It's all mixed up in his head and Sara holds him together as his grief threatens to tear him apart.

* * *

Rip holds himself together until the Earth is safe and the Dominators sent running home, tail between their legs. They'll be back, in a few decades. Earth will be more than ready for them when the time comes.

He disappears into Waverider, not feeling particularly like celebrating. He keeps thinking about what it felt like to kiss Miranda and discuss baby names and play with Jonas. His head spinning with the cruel taste of what he never had.

And Sara follows quietly after him and settles down with a beer of her own when he grabs one.

"My sister was in there. I'd never cheated with Ollie and wasn't an assassin. I was supposed to be her maid of honor when she got married, just like we'd talked about as kids." Sara took a drink of her beer. "I wanted to believe it was real. But that wasn't who I am anymore. It was like wearing an ill fitting sweater, or something. But I still wanted it to be real so badly. I wanted to keep Laurel."

"I knew something was wrong, before you showed up," Rip admitted quietly, staring into his beer. Not quite able to bring himself to take that first drink.

He's not sure he'll be able to stop once he starts.

"But you were right. This," he gestures to the ship, but he means the team. "This is my family now. And I'm grateful for each and every one of you." Even Mick, not that he'd tell the gruff man and risk being ridiculed for his sentimentality.

Sara reaches out and takes Rip's hand in hers and they just sit there for a while. Rip holding his drink for the familiarity of the action and Sara slowly nursing her own until it ran dry. And, somehow, their grief that the Dominators had ripped open anew felt a little easier to bear.


End file.
